[Media Invite] FUNOLOGY SG53 - A Durian Buffet Party @ Element and Element on Tras Street Amara Hotel

Come 9 August, Element and Element on Tras Street buffet guests could enjoy the all-you-can-eat Mao Shan Wang, D24 or Kampong durians, and have a short walk down a short memory lane with old school games of 'Tikam-Tikam' (sure win!) or the 'Knock Down The Tins' for a prize. There are also snack stalls such as tutu kueh, muah chee, and ice-cream cart where one could choose to enjoy the ice-cream wrapped in bread, much like the ice-cream uncle style. For a limited time, don't forget to let your caricature be drawn by Singapore's fastest caricaturist, Adam Chua and there's also a photo booth with vintage props including a trishaw and a samsui woman. Yup, or rather a lady dressed in samsui style. She's friendly.

Priced at $88++ (adults) and $36++ (child 6-12 years), and for 8 other paying guests, 2 gets to dine-free. For group bookings of 53 adults, there will be free flow iced-tea for you.

Read on for a preview of available activities and specials of FUNOLOGY SG53 Aug 2018. 

The durian stall is setup at the outer side of Element on Tras, complete with alfresco table for outdoor enjoyment of the King of Fruits. There will be about two to three variants of the durian available and we got to taste the Mao Shan Wang, D24 and kampong durians during the media event.

Durian Buffet Party

hurry and chope your table for all-you-can-eat durians

My personal favourite for the durian would be Mao Shan Wang. An attractive bright yellow hue, firm thin layer of outerskin that is not wet, plus that burst of creamy bittersweetness when one sinks their teeth into the soft flesh.

Mao Shan Wang 猫山王, just look at that beauty

Interestingly, kampong durian is available and it was of a much paler hue. Looks interesting but with limited stomach space, decided to give this a miss. Do let me know how it tasted if you had tried it.

kampong durian

Tropical fruits

Also tried our hands at the retro game stalls and got a prize from the sure-win Tikam Tikam. The game with the tins gave the arms a slight work-out!

my Fun Pass

Tikam Tikam and Bola Bola

Tikam Tikam prize

Trishaw ride / photo op

After all that fun and games, don't forget to head right in for the buffet line-up. Element's Dinner Buffet menu highlights for National Day include DIY Rojak Station, Daily Smoked Salmon (3 types!), Seafood on Ice (oysters, poached lobsters and prawns, Alaskan Crab, scallops), Carving Station's roasted meat (chicken, pork, char siew), Noodles Station (Singapore laksa without cockles, or Mee Siam), Hot Live Station (Katsu Don), Charcoal Grill Satay Station (chicken, mutton) and Dessert Stations where durian-based dessert takes centrestage with signatures available (for example chempedak creme brulee, nonya kueh). Please note that some of the items will be on rotation basis.

National Day dining

seafood on ice

freshly shucked oysters from France

For buffet, I'd start with oysters. The freshly shucked oysters from France are creamy and briny. I can sense the recurring theme of 'creamy'!

smoked salmon

Peking Duck Station

Peking Duck wraps

Live Noodles Station

Katsu Don

roasted meats

Old school eats of kueh tutu (with coconut fillings), muah chee and ice cream bread.

kueh tutu

muah chee

ice-cream bread

And for finale, eat to your heart's content at the dessert counters. Cakes, creme brulee, pudding, mousse, nonya kuehs are awaiting for your pick!

Durian Cake

Durian Mousse

Durian Panna Cotta

Happy SG53 and Happy Feasting!

For reservations, please call +65 6879 2607 or email to: element_sg@amarahotels.com

Thank you Lindy and Amara Singapore for the invite and Chef Charles for your hospitality.

[Busan] Chungmu Hoetjip 충무횟집 Seafood Feast @ Jagalchi Market

Jagalchi Market was one of our go-to places when we planned this trip to Busan. Naturally, we also wanted to try some seafood while at the market. Problem was, we didn't research on which restaurant we would like to go. Initially, the group thought we could just do street-side grill but after enquiring at the seafood stalls, most don't provide the grill. The restaurants too said that they could grill seafood not from their shop but provided those seafood also was not available in their shop. Makes sense as no one would cook something that someone bought elsewhere if they are also selling the same thing.

Hence, we decided on this shop that had called out to us while we were passing by. It was only later after we've finished eating that we enquired on the shopname.

shopfront

This was a tourist friendly place and English menu is available. The staff are kind too. As expected, seafood are pricey but as we were already there, it was worth a try. Ordered ourselves some grilled clams, grilled eel and grilled rockfish. Also tried the seafood pancake and raw marinated crab. So much food for the five of us!

The restaurant was rather big once you entered. There weren't many other patrons as it was only 11+am. This was a place where you have to remove your shoes and sit cross legged on the floor.

interior

menu

The side dishes were aplenty. We got 7 side dishes and a bowl of seaweed soup. The side dishes were edamame, marinated shellfish, salad in mayonaise sauce (like coleslaw), tofu (yummy), salad in black sesame sauce, mashed potato

7 side dishes and a soup

small shellfish in gochujang and salad

edamame

tofu

seafood pancake ₩30000

Loved the plates used. So pretty! Blue just reminds me of the sea.

grilled clams ₩70000

eel ₩50000

The large clams were cooked in their own juices so it had a very mild taste. The eel is not the version that we might be used to. The eel was plainly seasoned with just salt. Fresh eel and has a slightly chewy texture. The staff would come over to grill the clams and eel a little, after which, the patrons can take over. To eat, a sauce dip was provided. But am not sure if that was for the eel or for the clams. Maybe it was a multi-purpose fermented bean sauce.

eel, ready to eat

plum wine in the morning

Loved that we could get mixed grain rice. But with so much food, rice is absolutely unnecessary. Unless, you are eating 간장게장 marinated crabs (ganjang gejang). Rice would come in handy for the lovely umami sauce.

mixed grain rice

간장게장 soy marinated crabs ₩40000

While the marinated soy crabs were not as good as the one at Sinsa-dong Seoul, this was enough to satisfy ganjang gejang cravings.

The best grilled fish, was the grilled rockfish. Fresh fish with tender meat and lightly salted crisp exterior. So good. I'd say this is a must-order here. Different types of fishes are available but we wanted something that we normally couldn't get back home yet one that will not bust our budget.

grilled rockfish ₩60000

It was a good seafood feast and we enjoyed the food and the friendliness of the staff.

two table-full of food

We spent about $53 per pax for the meal.

Chungmu Hoetjip 충무횟집

Address: 27, Jagalchihaean-ro, Jung-gu, Busan
Contact: +82-51-246-8563
Website: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1369242
Business Hours:
Daily

Forest Orchidville Farm To Table @ 82 Sungei Tengah Rd

If it was not for my colleague, I would not have known that there is such a place called Orchidville at Sungei Tengah Rd. Located in a somewhat remote area and accessible by car. There is ample parking within its own compound and because it is a farm to table concept, almost all ingredients would have been homegrown.

The restaurant itself was huge and one could hold a wedding banquet here. The setup is typical Chinese restaurant with round tables and most importantly, it has lots of space between tables. Very comfy.

interior

There was a standee outside the restaurant proclaiming "Volcano Chicken" which piqued my interest. Never in my life, had I eaten any Volcano Chicken before...but alas, it is only available if you had pre-ordered it at least a day in advance. Aiyah. If anyone had tried this before, do drop me a message and let me know what was your verdict.

want to try this next time

The lady staff asked if we'd like "buah long long" juice. In my part of the world, it's called buah kedondong but ok lor, I like! It's English name is kind of hard, Spondias dulcis (or umbra) or 沙梨 in Chinese. Whatever it is called, I like to eat the fruit with dark sauce mixed with chili padi and sugar. In juice form, it must not be too diluted. Read about the health benefit of buah long long juice. The version at Orchidville was indeed refreshing and appetizing.

buah long long juice 

For food, we ordered crispy pork knuckles (one of their signature), stir fried sweet potato leaves, deep fried soon hock and a plate of seafood mee sua (rice vermicelli) for the birthday boy.

sweet potato leaves

seafood mee sua

The sweet potato leaves was very good. So good that we polished everything on that plate. Not even a single piece of leave left...

The mee sua was a surprise too. The texture of the noodles was quite firm and overall, it tasted like a plate of mee goreng instead.

deep fried soon hock

The fish was my favourite dish from the meat kingdom that night. It must have been a while since I've enjoyed a non-fillet kind of fish that wasn't in a burger form nor was it called sutchi. The flesh was sweet, the sauce on point and those crispy bits of minced garlic was just wow. That sauce and white rice, what a wonderful companion those two made. Happy belly times.

crispy pork knuckles

It was rather rare to have crispy pork knuckles in a Chinese zichar place. Though this was a signature dish, it was rather unfortunate that the meat turned out somewhat dry. The skin had a crisp outer but it was also somewhat chewy. I liked that this was eaten with the fresh green lettuces, so it felt rather balanced. The sweet savoury brownish sauce helped to moist the meat a bit but it wasn't a strong flavour.

There is a bowl of hae bee hiam that diners could help themselves to, so maybe that'll lift up the flavour when one does a meat wrap.

Overall, the food was inexpensive (mainly due to the 20% discount during dinner for the month of July) and portion was good.

Worth a visit with the family.

Orchidville

Address: 82 Sungei Tengah Rd, Singapore 698985
Website: http://www.orchidville.com.sg/
Contact: 6552 7003 / 9739 9602
Business Hours:
Daily Lunch: 1130am to 230pm
Daily Dinner: 530pm to 930pm

[Busan] Kyochon 1991 교촌치킨

We chanced upon this Korean fried chicken place after we've had our dinner at Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap. Hmm, to forgo or to eat somemore? This was in addition to the shared burger, chocolate pie and ice-cream from McDonald's after dinner...

Korean fried chicken? Can't say no

Decided to check out the place and it was smallish. All the tables appeared to be taken. There were about 4 tables for dining in. A group of young adults were at the entrance, and it seemed like they were awaiting for their take-away order.

We decided to order some and managed to get ourselves a small table. What did we order? Why, chimaek 치맥  of course! Chimaek is Chikin (chicken) and meaekju (beer) !

half pint of Cass draft beer

The ice-cold beer was refreshing and shared amongst 4 pax. Smallest unit seemed to be half pint. Not expensive. However, we seemed to have underestimated the portion of the chicken. We ended up with a tad too much! Seemed like we had three big chicken for 5 pax. Am sure we could've finished everything, only if we didn't have the earlier food...

original fried chicken

fried chicken overdose!

Loved the pickled radish 치킨무 also known as chicken-mu. Tangy and reduces the oily-ness of the chicken. The chicken were fresh from the oven and tasted so good! Liked the garlic soy and honeyed ones. Didn't try any spicy ones though.

It was the guilt (of too much food) and the oil that prevented us from eating them all. In SG, for the same price, we could only get measly portions of these fried chicken but in South Korea, it came in good generous portions.

Right across this shop, it appeared to be a club? Not too sure but there were pretty girls hanging around outside that shop and occasionally calling out to guys who happened to walk past.

Kyochon 1991 교촌치킨 초량점

Address: 6 Jungang-daero 209beon-gil, Choryang 2(i)-dong, Dong-gu, Busan, South Korea
Website: http://www.kyochon.com/menu
Contact: +82 51-441-9994
Business hours:
Daily 12 pm to 2am

[Busan] Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap 본전 돼지국밥

First evening in Busan, and I had arrived from Seoul via KTX while the rest of the gang, were coming in from Jeju. So interesting, right? Keke.

First meal, we agreed to have local food. The top must-eat foods in Busan seemed to be 밀면 milmyeon (wheat noodles), 돼지국밥 pork and rice soup (dwaeji gukbap),  어묵 eomuk (fish cake), and 냉채족발 (naegje jokbal) pork trotters with chilled vegetables. On hindsight, we did 3 out of 4 which was quite a feat, yes?

Let's start with dwaeji gukbap or loosely translated as pork rice soup. Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap was about 5 minutes from the KTX station and within walking distance to McDonalds too. We were hungry and weather was nicely cooling. There was a line outside of the shop by the time we were there at about 7.23pm. Waited for 20 minutes before we got seated.

Busan KTX station

Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap (left) shares the same building as Motel 3.6.9

The place had local tourists plus the foreign tourists like us. The place is casual and no-frills. The ahjumma running the place was rather strict and placed more emphasis on guys. Pretty traditional I'd think.

menu

The menu was rather straightforward too. Reasonably priced and slightly cheaper than Seoul. We ordered almost everything from the food menu.

Once the order had been taken, the staff will bring forth the side dishes. On the table, there was a pot of something that looked like chinchalok, fermented small fish. Tasted extremely salty and not pungent as chinchalok.

Jeotgal 醢

raw green chilies and onions, kimchi and spicy spring onions (back)

The kimchi was refillable, if you wish to have more. The green chilies were rather powerful and I learnt it, the hard way. The burn was strong and stayed for quite a while (about 10 minutes).

super spicy!

Initially thought that the sundae gukbap 순대국밥 would taste funky but it was pretty good. The sundae was cooked till soft and when eaten with the light tasting soup, it warmed our tummies and hearts.

순대국밥 

There was a gukbap with pigs stomach and that tasted really familiar. Much like the pig stomach soup back home. All the soup bases are similar and very mild tasting. One could add the jeotgal to season it a bit.

pig stomach gukbap 섞어탕반

Actually, the ahjumma did share with us on how one should be eating the gukbap. She said, add a bit of the jeotgal to the soup and then throw in a bunch of those seasoned spicy spring onions. Depends on your preference actually. One could do original and then alter the taste with the side-dishes.

돼지국밥 (pork bits rice soup)

For the premium set, the boiled pork belly was sliced thinly but intact while the regular pork rice soup had smaller bits of the pork meat.

pork belly gukbap

porridge and beer?

Good thing about dwaeji gukbap is that you won't end up feeling bloated or very full. The amount of rice in the soup was either half or about two third of a normal bowl.

Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap 본전 돼지국밥

Address: 3-8 Jungang-daero 214beon-gil, Choryang-dong, Dong-gu, Busan, South Korea
Phone: +82 51-441-2946
Business Hours:
Daily 830am to 930pm